Stupidity behind sex survey result

RE your editorial “Sex education fails the test” (3 November). Almost 20 per cent of S3-S6 pupils not knowing that using a condom can help prevent STIs makes me worry not about the state of sex education in schools, but about the intelligence levels of these kids. The thought of them filling out that part of the survey vexes me.

In this day and age, I find it very hard to believe that headteachers across the country are allowing sex education lessons to go no further than the “birds and the bees” mechanics of procreation. There is absolutely no way that sex education today fails to cover what a condom is and why it’s important to use one.

There are, as you rightly say, religious and parental factors which impede effective teaching of sex education for some children. But for the rest of that 20 per cent, perhaps their ignorance is simply a result of them being plain ignorant.